CHAPTER 274: FOR A 100,000 YEARS...

Sophia’s mind was utterly in disarray, too much emotion flowing through her mind, when every bit of emotion always remained under her own control. But there was indeed one primary emotion that she was feeling at this moment, which was hatred, hatred towards all of humanity. Why, why, why, why, why, why was it like this, always like this? Something primal within her mind roared in agreement against the hideous and wretched side of humanity.

An unnatural cancer that should never exist, that is what humanity truly was at its core. She noticed the strange texts that flashed through the corner of her eye, letters from an unknown language she did not understand at all. Nor was she interested in that anomaly at the moment. She looked upwards at the rocky ceiling of the underground facility, and the sounds of screams continued to resound. It was revolting, this entire place, this entire situation, this entire world, built by humans, ruled by humans, and operated by humans.

Tears fell from her cheeks, and then something happened that forcefully diverted her attention, as she was not paying attention to the strange letters flashing from the corner of her eyes. An ancient inanimate voice spoke directly in her mind, in an accent that was far too alien to even belong to this very world.

[Unlocking memories and pre-accumulated powers.]

A boundless rush of power started to pour out of her own body, from somewhere within, from her very soul. Then, as if a thousand-ton hammer had been hit on her head, memories started to flow, countless, numerous, almost infinite in magnitude. The pressure on her mind became so heavy that she wanted to rip off her own head from her body. The sensation was too painful.

Too many memories were rushing in; the sclera of her eyes turned completely red, alongside her already dark red iris. Droplets of blood started to come out from her eyes, nose, and mouth, which painted a hideous sight on her unnaturally beautiful face.

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It was at this moment that she finally remembered who she truly was, Sophia Turner, who was then summoned to become Sophia Evercrest of the Suncrest great kingdom, and this was her life within the trial. One of her countless lives within the trial. Her mission, and the conditions she had to fulfill, were far more treacherous than what she could have imagined, even in her wildest dreams.

She muttered in a broken tone, "For 100,000 Years."

Her first life in the trial was 100,000 years before these medieval times, in the Paleolithic Era, when the first human tribes existed, marking the beginning of humanity. She was born into a medium-sized tribe. As she grew to be the most beautiful female of the tribe and never went near any men, all the capable males within the tribe wanted to procreate with her. However, she refused them all. But for being in the primitive times, she did not have much say in it.

As the strongest one was decided to be her partner, despite her not willing to; though she did not remember anything of her true self, there were two instincts of her original self, two emotions that were most prominent within her: one was the desire to survive, and the disgust towards all men.

Her pleas fell on deaf ears, as she did not have any strength or rights over her own body. Just as the strongest one within the tribe was about to force himself on her, she killed him mercilessly before the man could touch her, as if an evil spirit had taken over her; she was now unwilling to be touched by anyone. This outcome outraged the entire tribe against her. By the traditions and judgment of the elder ones, it was decided that she would be burnt alive. Since she had killed the strongest one who hunted the most food for the tribe, she was a sinner who must be made an example of.

As such, her first life ended, and then she was reincarnated again, this time in a different tribe, with obviously no recollection of her first life or any past lives. Again, a similar scenario occurred; she killed the man designated to be her partner. But she did not stop there, as they wanted to cut off her head. She resisted more and killed many more of them, her strength being greater than in her first life. This repeated countless times, as she witnessed history unfold before her own eyes. She saw the super volcano eruption that nearly caused humanity to go extinct.

On every reincarnation, her powers would increase, her lifespan would increase, and she would also unlock bits and pieces of her past reincarnated memories. With each death, with each of her kills, she connected a few dots. The more she killed, the more strength accumulated in her next reincarnation. However, those pre-accumulated powers were only unlocked gradually as she killed more humans in that next reincarnation. In each of her lives, she would suffer one major tragedy, which unlocked her complete sense of self. She would always have to kill her loved ones with her very own hands.

At the beginning of each new life, she would be just a normal human, like any other. Still, as she continued to kill more humans, the accumulated strength, powers, and knowledge would gradually unlock. By the 30th reincarnation, she realized what she needed to do to get the highest evaluation on the trial. The path Prime Nexus was pushing her towards.

The trial was taking place on her very own earth. Her capabilities by now far surpassed human limits, approaching the unthinkable. However, it was nowhere near enough. Nowhere nearly enough for what she needed to do. So, from then on, she became a manipulator, an orchestrator, an architect who longed for war and slaughter and conflict. After all, she discovered that she did not personally need to take a life.

As long as the death of a human was directly or indirectly the result of her actions, she would receive that energy of every death in the same way. She manipulated the Mesopotamian kings into starting a war, seeking conquest. Causing countless deaths, numbers perhaps too great to count. The longest she had ever lived in one life was for 400 years. And throughout her entire life, she always looked young and beautiful, until one day her heart stopped beating.

This happened many more times, as she discovered another clue. Even though her strength continued to accumulate with each reincarnation and her kill count of humans, her lifespan ceased to grow once it reached 400 years. She did not understand why and could only accept it. But most of the time, she spent her life one after another as a scheming manipulator, but as long as she played that role of actively causing more and more deaths, humans would always discover her, and she would always be killed at the age of 200.

Except for a handful of reincarnations in which she did not actively meddle with the human world. She would always die within 200 years of lifespan. It was a curse of sorts that whenever she actively plotted to destroy most of humanity, one way or the other, she would always be caught, and the whole of society would come together to kill her—leading to a final confrontation between her and large empires or forces of humanity.

She would fight with all her might, but alas, against an almost infinite number of humans, akin to ants, even an elephant like her would have to fall. No matter how meticulous her plans were, she always failed at that particular point, as if something from beyond was watching her and warning the humans. In every single iteration, she would have to go through a major tragedy that would awaken her memories. And this would continue to repeat indefinitely.

This process made her realize what she was heading towards, as the unlocking of her memories and strength both depended on killing more and more; the direction she was being pushed towards was an obvious conclusion to arrive at. She was there from the beginning of humanity; the history she once read in textbooks, she was now living it. From the conquest of the first Mesopotamian empires, to the slavery system in Egypt, to the conquests of Alexander and Julius Caesar of Rome, and even the fall of Rome, everything was orchestrated by her from the shadows.

The number of humans she killed was too great, and it broke her in every possible way. She was never a heartless and vicious monster to begin with, initially, but she was forced to become one. As in every single life of hers, she saw the ugliest sides of humanity, the most disgusting side of humanity. Something that eventually turned her into a vengeful spirit.

She first killed one, then killed two, then killed a hundred, then a thousand, then hundreds of thousands, then millions; eventually, her total kill count had crossed into billions. The image of billions of humans she killed popped in her head, whether they were men, women, children, innocent or guilty, healthy, ill, or disabled, none were spared; only one thing mattered: whether they were human or not. Because for every single human she killed, she always received the same amount of increase in power.

It was oh so obvious where this was heading. The task she needed to accomplish to get her wish was to end it all; it was to wipe out all of humanity, until not a single trace of that species remained on planet Earth.